Noah Taylor

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A talented performer who successfully made the transition from juvenile roles to adult performances, Australian actor Noah Taylor broke through in the United States playing the adolescent piano prodigy, David Helfgott, in the Oscar-winning drama, "Shine" (1996). Prior to this success, Taylor had both supporting and leading roles in a number of projects made in his native Australia, while managing to crack through across the Pacific with a role in the television miniseries "Dadah is Death" (CBS, 1988). After "Shine," he starred in the indie period drama, "Simon Magus" (1999), before appearing in consecutive movies directed by Cameron Crowe, "Almost Famous" (2001) and "Vanilla Sky" (2002). While entering blockbuster territory as Angelina Jolie's sidekick in "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" (2001) and its sequel "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life" (2003), Taylor delivered his most complex and critically acclaimed performances as a pre-Nazi Adolf Hitler in the unrelenting drama, "Max" (2002). From there, he settled into a series of foreign and independently made features like "The Proposition" (2006) and "Submarine" (2010), none of which received much play in the States. Regardless, Taylor remained a talented performer capable of tackling a wide variety of offbeat characters in either supporting or leading roles.Born on Sept. 4, 1969 in London, England, Taylor was raised by his journalist parents, Paul and Maggie, who moved the family to Australia in 1974. The young lad honed his talents as a child actor on stage with the St. Martin's Youth Theater in Melbourne, where he appeared in "Pierrot Lunnaire," "Alien in the Park" and "Eric and Verna." After attending the Swinburne Community School and University High School, Taylor made his features debut in Richard Lowenstein's "Dogs in Space" (1986), a rock-n-roll drama focusing on several young people sharing a house in Melbourne. He landed his first leading role in John Duigan's semi-autobiographical "The Year My Voice Broke" (1987), playing a youth coming to terms with his burgeoning sexuality. Taylor next made his American small screen debut in the two-part miniseries, "Dadah is Death" (CBS, 1988), before reprising Danny for Duigan's follow-up, "Flirting" (1990), which focused on the young lad's romance with an African student (Thandi Newton).Once established as a young leading actor, Taylor continued to appear in a number of well-received Australian features, including Geoffrey Wright's "Lover Boy" (1989), in which he played a youth involved in a doomed love affair. He was a virginal youngster covering his inexperience with a tough exterior and fake Liverpudlian accent in "Secrets" (1992), his first collaboration with writer Jan Sardi. The coming-of-age comedy earned praise from local critics, who favorably compared it with American films like "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" (1978) and "The Breakfast Club" (1985). As "The Nostradamus Kid" (1993), Taylor stood out in the otherwise confusing and rather misogynistic film. But nonetheless, he inspired its director, Bob Ellis, to proclaim the actor to be his onscreen alter ego. Back on American television, Taylor was featured alongside Nicole Kidman in "Bangkok Hilton" (TBS, 1990), while additionally appearing in "The Boys from the Bush" (BBC, 1991-92) and "Inspector Morse: Promised Land" (PBS, 1993).In 1995, Taylor displayed his broad comic abilities as the youngest child in a turn-of-the-century family carving a life in the bush in "Dad and Dave - On Our Selection," co-starring fellow Aussie Geoffrey Rush. Taylor had his biggest breakthrough playing the adolescent-age piano prodigy, David Helfgott, who suffers an abusive home life run by his authoritarian father and later succumbs to a debilitating mental breakdown in Scott Hicks' acclaimed biopic "Shine" (1996). The Oscar-winning, feel-good drama also starred Rush, who played the adult version Helfgott. The two actors went on to make cameo appearances in the Australian miniseries, "Front